1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to managing communication between or among a plurality of communication terminals.
2. Background
The communication systems allow transmission of contents data such as image data and/or sound data among a plurality of communication terminals that are remotely located from one another through a relay device to facilitate communication among the plurality of communication terminals through a communications network such as the Internet. With the need for reducing costs or times associated with business trips, more companies are moving towards communication systems provided with the above-described telecommunication capabilities.
Further, a management system is provided on the communications network to notify the user at a request communication terminal of an operation state of a counterpart communication terminal, before the user starts communicating with the counterpart communication terminal. Since the user at one end is notified of whether the user at the other end is available for communication before starting communication, the user at one end is able to decide not to start communication when the operation state of the counterpart communication terminal at the other end indicates that the counterpart communication terminal is in the offline state or not available for communication.